One Hundred Thousand Ryo in Hand

At that moment, Uchiha Gen had the urge to undo the Impure World Reincarnation and beat Orochimaru up. But undoing it would definitely alert Orochimaru. Thinking of those one hundred thousand ryo—and how not only had he failed to save any money, but had spent quite a bit—he sighed and endured it for now.

As for other ways, it was not as if Uchiha Gen had none. With his current strength, stealing, robbing, killing, collecting protection money—he could always scrape together one hundred thousand ryo. He just instinctively avoided those solutions. And as for Orochimaru's experimental equipment, could taking your own people's stuff even be called stealing?

He had seen his own eyes reflected on the water before. In this cheat-filled Ninja World, he only had Three-Tomoe Sharingan, not even Mangekyo. It was too embarrassing to even go outside and say so. Besides, if he made too much trouble, there would be plenty of people to deal with him. He did not know what being sealed felt like, but he definitely did not want to try it.

Two days passed quickly...

On the day of the exam, Kabuto came to find him. He saw Uchiha Gen leaning expressionlessly against the wall, the human skin from his fingers gone at some point. He was idly snapping apart the cracks on his Reanimated Body hand, and a small pile of dirt and ash had fallen to the ground.

"..." Kabuto pushed up his glasses and said as if issuing an order, "Time to go. Once everyone falls under the genjutsu, begin the operation. Your target is to take Sasuke away."

Uchiha Gen merely frowned slightly, as though his fun had been interrupted. Kabuto instinctively took half a step back, his entire body tensing, though he maintained a stiff smile. "This is Lord Orochimaru's order." With that, he turned and left.

After walking for a while, Kabuto gently took off his glasses and wiped away the fog on them. The embarrassment from before was nowhere to be seen on his face. He shrugged. "Whether alive or dead, the Uchiha Clan is always so arrogant~"

As for the missing equipment from before, Kabuto instinctively felt that Uchiha Gen was responsible. But what would a dead man want with those things? Was he planning to research how to revive himself? That was truly laughable.

In Kabuto's eyes, if even Lord Orochimaru could not accomplish it, then a mere Uchiha had even less chance.

And that was indeed true. Ye Yuan had not been suited for this kind of work in his previous life, but with a bug-like existence such as the system, as well as the genuinely existing Rebirth, he did not need to conduct research.

The ash he had snapped off quickly recovered and gathered back onto his fingers. Uchiha Gen looked at his fingers, which showed no change from before. Well, this was not scientific, but it was very Six Paths.

As for taking Sasuke away? Uchiha Gen thought it was a joke. Handing the Uchiha Clan's last remaining seedling over to him as a spare body? Who knew whether some messy butterfly effect he caused later might result in Sasuke being delivered to Orochimaru early and Orochimaru succeeding? Would the Six Paths acknowledge that guy? And as for Itachi, that guy had never planned to live anyway.

Having made his bet, he arrived at the spectator stands. He suddenly caught sight of Naruto and Sakura, then decided to go over and greet them.

When his view of the arena was suddenly blocked, Naruto froze. He looked up, stared for a long while, and only then remembered that this was the uncle who had treated him to ramen before.

Uchiha Gen watched his reaction. "..." Was his face really that forgettable?

Naruto pointed at the forehead protector on Uchiha Gen's arm. "Uncle, shouldn't you be watching your own team members? Why did you come over here? Are you trying to gather intelligence?"

Uchiha Gen was speechless. This brat really was unlikable. Had their ramen friendship meant nothing? Then he suddenly spotted Dosu Kinata, still alive, across the way. Dosu was staring at him with confusion and speechlessness written all over his face. Uchiha Gen's heart jolted. He was still alive...

He did not continue making his presence known before the protagonist group and hurried over to the seats designated for the Sound Ninja preparation area.

After Uchiha Gen left, Sakura quietly asked, "Naruto, do you know him?"

Naruto nodded. "He's a somewhat stingy uncle, but he's a good person."

"?" Sakura

Unaware that he had received a good guy card, Uchiha Gen used Body Flicker to appear before Dosu Kinata. He opened his mouth, unsure what to say, and finally squeezed out, "You're still alive?"

Veins bulged on Dosu Kinata's forehead at those words. What did that mean? Was he cursing him to death? Thinking that, he snorted coldly and decided to ignore his nominally "split-personality" Jonin leader.

He was alive, but what had happened that day had shattered every last bit of his pride. Thinking of it, Dosu Kinata looked at Gaara with lingering fear. Before Gaara could sense his gaze, he hastily looked away. That guy was completely a monster!! The upcoming match...

"If I see you in the arena again, then go die!" Gaara seemed to be suppressing something as he opened his eyes, his pupils contracting. Though he was only a small figure, his killing intent was like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Forfeit! Forfeit!!

I'll die!!!

He had not wanted to come to this arena at all. But when he thought of Sasuke, whom Lord Orochimaru had his eyes on, his fists clenched. He was still unwilling to accept it and wanted to see what was so special about Sasuke. Yet when he thought of Gaara, he had already sentenced Sasuke to death in his heart.

Seeing that Dosu Kinata was ignoring him and seemed lost in thought, Uchiha Gen patted his head. "Why have you become mute after not seeing me for so long?"

"...No." Dosu Kinata was furious and wanted to hit someone, yet he could do nothing to Uchiha Gen.

Ignoring Dosu Kinata's aggrieved glare, Uchiha Gen said, "If I remember correctly, you're only fourteen, right? Though you look older than even me. What are you thinking about all day with such a heavy heart?"

Dosu Kinata... Was it his fault that he looked mature? He said expressionlessly, "What exactly do you want to ask?"

"Fine, we can put aside the earlier question for now. Did you go looking for Gaara? Has Orochimaru contacted you?"

Dosu Kinata did not notice that Uchiha Gen had not used an honorific when referring to Orochimaru. Or rather, after last time, he had already realized that Uchiha Gen seemed somewhat dissatisfied with Lord Orochimaru.

Dosu Kinata answered concisely, "I did. No..." He paused. "What are we to Lord Orochimaru?"

He had gone to find Gaara because of Kabuto's hint, coupled with confidence in his own strength. But now it seemed that the difference in their strength was simply enough to send him to his death! Though he did not know why Gaara had shown mercy in the end and allowed him to survive.

After that incident, Dosu Kinata had received no further instructions. When he returned, Kabuto had looked surprised for a moment upon seeing him, but quickly returned to normal. Kabuto had not expected such a situation, but had not cared either. He casually dismissed Dosu Kinata, giving him the order to create chaos when the opportunity arose.

Uchiha Gen nodded mercilessly. "You could say you're cannon fodder with a little use."

"..." Dosu Kinata.

"Hey, if you had a choice, would you still follow Orochimaru?" Uchiha Gen asked as if casually.

At that, Dosu Kinata's gaze became somewhat lost. "...I don't know." The moment he said it, he was startled. Why would he think something like that?

Uchiha Gen smiled at the sight and did not continue provoking him. Instead, he changed the subject. "Look, the first match has started. Naruto versus Neji Hyuga. Who do you think will win?"

Dosu Kinata answered without any hesitation, "Neji."

Uchiha Gen narrowed his eyes with a profound smile. "I'm betting on Naruto."

The match ended...

Dosu Kinata fell silent.

"So, don't underestimate any opponent."

"..."

Relying on his foreknowledge and the script in his hands, Uchiha Gen acted smugly. As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly vanished before Dosu Kinata's eyes, his eyes shining as he rushed straight toward the gambling house. Going by Naruto's odds, one hundred thousand ryo would be easy money.

It was system-produced. Maybe that human skin had some unexpected little surprise, such as restoring a little of his sense of touch, even if only a tiny bit!

But because he had remained anonymous and won too much, some thugs targeted him. In response, Uchiha Gen tossed each of them into a genjutsu and let them play among themselves slowly.